Social Capital as Investment in the Future: Kinship Relations in Financing Children's Education during Reforms in a Vietnamese Village

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This paper identifies how social capital in kinship relations is employed to foster children’s education in the Reform era, based on an anthropological and sociological study in Quỳnh Đôi village, Quỳnh Lưu district, Nghệ An province, Vietnam. The paper shows that in the Đổi mới period, with the state policy of "socialization of education", many social forces have contributed to educational affairs.

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Nội dung Text: Social Capital as Investment in the Future: Kinship Relations in Financing Children's Education during Reforms in a Vietnamese Village

VNU Journal of Science, Vol. 32, No. 1S (2016) 110-124 Social Capital as Investment in the Future: Kinship Relations in Financing Children's Education during Reforms in a Vietnamese Village Nguyen Tuan Anh1,*, Fleur Thomése2, Oscar Salemink3 1 VNU University of Social Sciences and Humanities, 336 Nguyen Trai, Hanoi, Vietnam 2 Free University in Amsterdam, Netherland 3 University of Copenhagen, Denmark Received 06 October 2016 Revised 18 October 2016; Accepted 28 November 2016 Abstract: This paper identifies how social capital in kinship relations is employed to foster children’s education in the Reform era (Đổi mới), based on an anthropological and sociological study in Quỳnh Đôi village, Quỳnh Lưu district, Nghệ An province, Vietnam. The paper shows that in the Đổi mới period, with the state policy of ‘socialization of education’, many social forces have contributed to educational affairs. In rural areas in northern Vietnam, kinship institutions such as patrilineage groups have played an important role in supporting children’s education through “study encouragement funds” [quỹ khuyến học]. From a social capital perspective, we argue that social capital, understood as enforceable trust and reciprocity exchanges, was the foundation for raising patrilineage study encouragement funds. One significant observation was that both patrilineage members and non-members contributed to these funds. Moreover, pupils receiving financial study encouragements could be either patrilineage members or non-members. Thus, the kin-based support system for children’s education has gone beyond the boundaries of patrilineage kin groups to include both patrilineal and other kin relations. From a receiver’s viewpoint, the social capital benefiting pupils was located in ego-based kinship networks which extended beyond just patrilineages. Therefore, in the Đổi mới era, villagers went beyond their patrilineage boundaries to mobilize social capital in their ego-based kin networks, including both relatives inside and outside their patrilineage, to encourage children’s education. Keywords: Social capital, kinship relation, education. 1. Introduction that education as human capital of “the skills and knowledge acquired by an individual” is closely linked with social capital (Coleman, 1988: 10) [2]. This is in line with the view according to which social capital creates a convenient milieu for children’s education (Teachman, Paasch, & Carver, 1997: 1356) [3]. This paper examines how villagers mobilize social capital in kinship relations to encourage Social capital has an important role in the creation of human capital. As Putnam points out, social capital brings about many positive effects including better education (Putnam, 2000) [1]. In the same vein, Coleman asserts _______  Corresponding author.: Email: tuana.vnu@vnu.edu.vn 110 110 N.T. Anh et al. / VNU Journal of Science, Vol. 32, No. 1S (2016) 110-124 children’s education in the economic reform period. This period started officially in 1986 aiming at transforming a socialist economy in terms of a state subsidized and centrally planed economy into a socialist oriented market economy. These reforms in fact had their beginnings in 1981 in the domain of agricultural production. Economic reforms were not only carried out in agriculture, but also in the domains of industry and trade. There was growth of private domestic enterprises and foreign investment (Sikor & O Rourke, 1996) [4], accompanied by a shift from protectionism to a liberal trade regime (Mazyrin, 2007) [5]. On 11 January 2007, Vietnam became the WTO's 150th member, which marked the historic integration of Vietnam into the global market economy. In this paper we define social capital as resources in terms of enforceable trust and reciprocity exchanges embedded in individuals’ social networks. Individuals can produce, maintain and use social capital through ties in that network to secure benefits for themselves. This definition fits into the general premise that social capital is network-based, which is acknowledged by most scholars (Bourdieu, 1986; Coleman, 1988; Fukuyama, 2001, 2002; Lin, 1999, 2001; Portes, 1998; Putnam, 1995, 2000) [1, 6-10]. In addition, the perception of social capital that entails enforceable trust and reciprocity exchanges also derives from the discussions of these scholars on social capital (Coleman, 1988; Fukuyama, 2001, 2002; Portes, 1998; Putnam, 1995, 2000) [1, 2, 9-12]. Putnam differentiates between “bonding” social capital and “bridging" social capital. Bonding social capital applies only within homogenous groups while bridging social capital is formed across diverse social groups. And while bonding social capital is useful for “getting by”, bridging social capital is important for “getting ahead” (Putnam, 2000: 22-23). The perception that bonding social capital is good for getting by and bridging social capital is crucial for getting ahead is also emphasized by Woolcock and Narayan 111 (Woolcock, 2001; Woolcock & Narayan, 2000) [13, 14]. If Putnam’s perception of bonding and bridging social capital could be linked to kinship relations, bonding social capital is built and used among relatives of the same patrilineage and bridging social capital is built and used among relatives belonging to different patrilineages. It should be noticed that the distinction between bonding and bridging is flexible depending on the questions under examination (Putnam, 2000: 23). If the village boundary is taken into account, bonding social capital could be built and used among relatives who belong to the same patrilineage and live in the same village, while bridging social capital could be built and used among people living in the village and relatives of the same patrilineage living outside the village. From the social capital perspective mentioned above, we shall analyze the linkage between kinship relations and children’s education through Patrilineage Encouragement Funds. We shall also show that social capital in kinship relations is not only restricted to the confines of patrilineages but also extends to circles of relatives who do not share the same patrilineal ancestors, in creating favorable conditions for children’s education. Attention will be paid to the changes that blur the gender lines in patrilineage-related activities along with an improvement of women’s position. Scholars usually study Vietnamese kinship from a patrilineal viewpoint such as Pham Van Bich (1999) and Mai Van Hai and Phan Dai Doan (2000). In addition, Luong van Hy suggests that Vietnamese kinship consists of “the two structurally opposing male oriented (“patrilineal”) and non male oriented (“bilateral”) models” (Luong, 1989: 742) [15]. Viewing kinship from an ancestor-based vantage point and from an ego-based perspective enables us to clarify the types of kinship. From an ancestor-focus, descent groups form membership groups in which members define their relationship to each other with reference to a common ancestor – the lineage. The various types of lineage organize 112 N.T. Anh et al. / VNU Journal of Science, Vol. 32, No. 1S (2016) 110-124 kinship in membership groups with boundaries defined by rules of descent. If we view kinship from the ego-focus, all people who are related to ego can belong to the ego-based kin network, including those who do not share a common ancestor. A vital feature of the ego-centred kin network is that all ego-based cognates up to a certain degree are recognized as having some duties toward him and some claims on him (Fox, 1967: 146-174) [16]. Fox contends that in complex societies, kinship tends to be defined more in terms of ego-based kin networks than in terms of membership in (lineage) descent groups (Fox, 1967). In the setting of Vietnamese society, one that is rapidly changing and becoming more complex, besides considering the viewpoints of patrilineage and the “bilateral” model, we will also look at Vietnamese kinship relations as ego-based kin networks. The data used in this paper came from fieldwork conducted in Quỳnh Đôi village, Quỳnh Lưu district, Nghệ An province, Northern Vietnam. This village has a long, well-recorded history and a long tradition of education with many villagers getting degrees equivalent to bachelor, master and doctoral degrees in the era of the classic Hán-Chinese education system. This village is also the homeland of several famous "historic” people including revolutionary leaders. Quỳnh Đôi is a part of Nghệ An province where revolutionary ideals took roots and collectivization policies were implemented with great fervor, depriving kinship - especially patrilineal ties which were considered as vestiges of ‘feudalism’ - of some of its pre- and post-revolutionary functions. Quỳnh Đôi inhabitants not only bear the full brunt of revolution and war but are also subjected to the socio-economic, cultural and political changes that have transformed northern Vietnamese villages in the past decades. Against this background, this sociological and anthropological study of family and kinship can elucidate how kinship relations played important roles in children’s education in the economic reform period. In this paper, we use both qualitative and quantitative data. The qualitative data come from two sources. The first source is published and unpublished data of the patrilineages, the village, and the commune. The second source is observations, interviews and conversations during fieldwork by the first author (Nguyen Tuan Anh). Between 2000 and 2008, we made numerous short and long trips to the field for data collection, which enabled us to have a deep understanding of the village life. The quantitative data come from three surveys, which were carried out in 2000, 2003, and from late 2006 to early 2007. The sample size of each survey was 300 villagers. The total village population was 4,567 people in 2000, 4699 people in 2003 and 4640 people in 2006. The next section of this paper covers the policy of ‘socialization’ as a key point in the education domain. The financial burden as a consequence of this policy will be discussed in section 3. In sections 4, we shall examine kinship relations and children’s education through Patrilineage Encouragement Funds. 2. The “socialization” of education - a key education policy since Đổi mới The year 1986 has been officially considered as the starting point of Đổi mới in Vietnam, which marks the shift from a state subsidized and centrally planed economy to a market oriented economy under state management. The radical changes introduced by Đổi mới have made a strong impact on all aspects of Vietnamese society including education. An important departure in the policies of Đổi mới is the "socialization” of education1 [17, 18]. The concept "socialization” is directly translated from "Xã hội hóa” in Vietnamese. “Socialization” is the concept officially adopted in the Eighth Communist _______ 1 It has been suggested that the phrase ‘Social participation in the cause of education’ would be better to interpret the phrase “Xã hội hoá giáo dục” (Bùi Trọng Liễu, 2007; Nguyễn Lộc, 2007). N.T. Anh et al. / VNU Journal of Science, Vol. 32, No. 1S (2016) 110-124 Party of Vietnam Congress (Bùi Gia Thịnh et al. 1999:7) [19]. The Communist Party guidelines on "socialization” of education were translated into Education Laws that were promulgated in 1998 (Quốc hội Nước Cộng hòa Xã hội Chủ nghĩa Việt Nam, 1998) and in 2005 (Quốc hội Nước Cộng hòa Xã hội Chủ nghĩa Việt Nam, 2005) [20, 21]. Article 12 of the Education Law in 2005 stipulates that the state and the entire population, organizations, families and citizens share the responsibility of promoting the cause of education. Article 105 stipulates that pupils or their families have to pay enrolment and tuition fees. Article 13 urges all Vietnamese organizations, individuals, and foreign organizations and individuals to invest in education. The existence of private schools is confirmed (article 48 of the 2005 Education Law in 2005; article 44 of the 1998 Education Law). Thus ‘socialization’ of education is a significant development in the Đổi mới era. The policy is opposed to the old state subsidy system [chế độ bao cấp] that prevailed before the Đổi mới, when education was officially free of charge and there were no private schools. Today, the establishment of private schools is encouraged by the state and pupils of both private and public schools have to pay tuition2 fees. Besides, households have to bear other. It extra expenses in order to send their children to school seems rather ironical but "socialization” of education in the age of the Đổi mới means nothing but outright "privatization”, shifting the financial burden to individual households. As Vũ Quang Việt points out, in educational matters the government has minimized the responsibility of the state and maximized the contributions of the population through "socialization”, a misnomer [22]. In the next section, we will show that "socialization”, in practice, has been imposing heavy individual contributions to education. _______ 2 Pupils of public primary schools do not have to pay school fee but have to pay several types of expenses. See the information below. 113 3. "Socialization” of education and financial burden to the households of pupils In Quỳnh Đôi financial contributions of households to their children’s education are very high in comparison to their incomes3 [23]. On 24 October 2007, we conducted an interview with Nguyễn Thị Ninh, born in 1973 and living in hamlet number 6. She and her husband have two children, one attending primary school (2nd grade) one following secondary school (8th grade)4. She listed the expenses incurred in sending their children to primary and secondary schools in 2007 as follows5 (table 1). The data above shows that households have to pay numerous kinds of expenses related to children’s education in the Đổi mới period, when the state ceased to subsidize the education system as in the socialist transformation period. There were 12 kinds of fees for primary school, and 13 kinds for secondary school. There were several rather weird items such as ‘charge for electricity for fans and light bulbs used in classrooms, or ‘depreciation cost of tools used in classrooms such as water basins, tablecloths’, etc. According to a survey in late 2007, in places like Trà Vinh, An Giang, Vĩnh Long, Đắc Lắc and Hồ Chí Minh city , most household expenditures on children’s education were not spent on tuition fees but on ‘contributions’ related to schooling (Trần Hữu Quang, 2008) [24]. Studying in Yên Bái province, Dang Bich Thuy listed quite a few contributions related to schooling such as the pupil parent association fund, the school construction fund, electricity use in class, school protection and cleaning (Dang Bich Thuy, 2008: 169-171) [25]. In her studies in the _______ 3 Expenditures on education in Vietnam recently account for a sizable portion of GDP and GNP. For example in 2005 this accounts for 8.3% of GDP. It is worth noticing that 40% of these expenditures come from pupils and their families (Vũ Quang Việt, 2006). 4 In Vietnam, households assume all children’s living expenses. 5 In October 2007, 1 USD was approximately to 16,309 VND. N.T. Anh et al. / VNU Journal of Science, Vol. 32, No. 1S (2016) 110-124 114 provinces of Yên Bái, Thừa Thiên Huế and Tiền Giang, Dang Thi Hoa pointed out that tuition fees and other expenses such as school buildings, buying textbooks were a financial burden for most rural households (Dang Thi Hoa, 2008: 147-149) [26]. It is worth noting that extra classes have been a big problem for parents and children alike (Dang Bich Thuy, 2008: 167). The problem of extra classes occurred not only in Quỳnh Đôi but was a widespread phenomenon nationwide (Lê Quang Dũng, 2005) [27]. Table 1. Expenses for a child of Nguyễn Thị Ninh6 attending primary school No 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Items Buying supplementary teaching aids Maintaining school and learning equipment (table and chair) Body insurance [Bảo hiểm thân thể]7 Medical insurance Parents’ association fund Extra classes Depreciation of class room tools Youth pioneer union fund The electricity School uniforms Text books Notebooks Total expenses VND 50,000 70,000 20,000 60,000 9,000 297,000 4,000 9,000 5,000 29,000 100,000 32,000 685,000 USD 3.06 4.29 1.22 3.67 0.55 18.21 0.24 0.55 0.30 1.77 6.13 1.96 42.00 Table 2. Expenses for a child of Nguyễn Thị Ninh attending secondary school No 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Items Maintaining school and learning equipment Tuition fee Body insurance Medical insurance Fund of parents’ association Fund of youth pioneer union School Fund The electricity Fee for bicycle parking Fee for trial examination Extra classes Text books Notebooks Total expenses VND 80,000 135,000 25,000 60,000 15,000 9,000 5,000 5,000 25,000 5,000 150,000 Borrow from a relative 50,000 564,000 USD 4.90 8.27 1.53 3.67 0.91 0.55 0.30 0.30 1.53 0.30 9.19 3.06 34.58 k67 _______ 6 7 The names of informants in this paper are fictitious in order to ensure the anonymity and privacy of the informants. This is a type of insurance providing financial support in the event the policyholder is ill or injured.